


Time Enclosed Within

by Vibranch



Category: Final Fantasy VIII, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Let's have some fun with the Canon, Not Time Travel, Nothing in the Canon contradicts this at least..., Post-Kingdom Hearts II, Pre-Canon, Time Shenanigans, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-06-26 15:49:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19771438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vibranch/pseuds/Vibranch
Summary: A lone castle in the outskirts of Radiant Garden sits abandoned and neglected. Once the home to a powerful Sorceress, it is now the perfect spot to salvage materials to speed up the Committee’s rebuilding efforts. After all, it’s been ten years since the Heartless ravaged this world. Each member has faced the Darkness and come out on top. And with a Sorceress of their own, what demons from the past could possibly haunt them now.





	1. From Leon to Sora

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who's excited for FF8 Remaster? I'm excited for FF8 Remaster!  
> Anyway I was partially inspired to write this after reading WickedSong's Sorceress and Knight series. Its very sweet, a little tragic, and very well written. I highly recommend it if you haven't read it yet and like the Squall/Rinoa and want to see it set in Kingdom Hearts.
> 
> One other thing, this was mostly planned out before I found out that the term Sorceress in Final Fantasy 8 was translated in all languages, but English, as Witch. So I took some creative liberties with the reason why Leon in KH1 calls Maleficent a witch. If English isn't your first language and a non-English translation is what you're most familiar with, then this is a heads up that terms Witch and Sorceress are both going to be in here and they are going to have separate meanings in this story.

Dear Sora,

It’s been a little while. I hope everything worked out with finding Riku and the King. No doubt you’ve been keeping yourself busy. Well, the same can definitely be said for us. A lot’s been happening over here at Radiant Garden. We’ve been reunited with a lot of people we’d thought we had lost forever, and everybody from the Restoration Committee has been trekking out further from the castle town you’re familiar with. It’s mostly been to salvage materials that we can use to help us rebuild. One of the places we came across was Ultimecia’s Hollowed Bastion.

The name sounds a little familiar, huh? I should probably take a moment to explain.

Hollow Bastion wasn’t just the name of this world because we couldn’t remember its original name. There was a reason for why we called it that. In fact, Radiant Garden has a long history of Hallowed Bastions. But in order to explain that I should first tell you about the Sorceresses who lived in them.

Sorry… I guess I’m doing a bad job of explaining this. You’ve probably got more questions now. You’re probably thinking I just misspelled Hollow in that last paragraph. But there is a very key difference between Hallowed and Hollowed Bastions.

And there I go again, making it unnecessarily complicated. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to keep throwing these strange terms at you.

You know what? I’ll tell you the important terms as they come up. Instead, I’ll start with my time in Ultimecia’s Bastion. Her once Hallowed Bastion. Her, then and forever, Hollowed Bastion.

Shortly after you sorted out things with Tron and the MCP, me and a few others began a trek towards a Castle once controlled by the Sorceress Ultimecia. Sorceresses were very important figures back before Radiant Garden fell to the Heartless. They were women of great magical power. Often, they would make history. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. But very rarely, would a Sorceress not leave a mark on the world.

As members of the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee it’s our responsibility to rebuild the world as much as possible. And Ultimecia’s Bastion was likely to have some materials within that we could use to help with the restoration.

Most Sorceresses had some kind of Bastion to call home after their powers became well-known. It was a place that they could rest away from others who might fear their powers. But Sorceresses didn’t stay in there alone. Most Sorceresses had a Knight.

You see, phenomenal powers alone aren’t enough. Sorceresses have a tendency to be misunderstood, and in those times, many have relied upon another to help protect them. A Knight. New sorceresses especially rely upon their Knight. No one is born a Sorceress. Previous Sorceresses pass down their powers to others. They allow the power to grow within the Heart of the one they pass it down to.

However, learning to properly use that power takes time, and using too much too quickly can leave the Sorceress exhausted and unable to defend herself. That’s where the Sorceress’s Knight comes in. Not only do they protect their Sorceress, the bond formed between them makes their very presence amplify their Sorceress’s power.

That brings me to Ultimecia’s Bastion. Typically, a Sorceress’s Bastion would be a castle or tower. Basically, a place with imposing architecture to keep people away. And Ultimecia’s Bastion was no different. It was disused even before the Heartless attacked. Its tattered and worn down appearance even made people who _had_ business with Sorceresses want to stay away. Many wondered if Ultimecia was even still alive in there or not. Back when I was still a new recruit, there were many arguments within Radiant Garden’s chain of command as to whether or not Ultimecia’s Bastion was a Hallowed Bastion or a Hollow Bastion.

If a sorceress used her powers for the betterment of the people around her, then her Bastion was considered a place of miracles. But there were women who used the power of the Sorceress as an excuse to flex control over others. These ‘Hollow Bastions’, as they were called, were home to some of the most dangerous individuals Radiant Garden had ever seen. Some Sorceresses would, tragically, go bad after a while, commonly from losing their Knight one way or another, and their Hallowed Bastion was considered to have hollowed.

Regardless of whether or not Ultimecia’s Bastion should be considered Hallowed or Hollow, I lead a party of four towards it. It included Yuffie, Cid, Rinoa, and myself. I figured a small party should be fine. After all it had been ten years since the Heartless swarmed and force the people to flee Radiant Garden. If Ultimecia was a threat, she would almost certainly be long dead by the time we arrived at her Bastion. And besides, we were mostly just checking to see what was still salvageable. We weren’t sure what kind of state the Heartless would have left the place in by the time we got there.

Cid was fired up and ready to go inside as soon as we got there. “Alright already! Let’s get in there and go home.” Or maybe he just had something else he’d rather do back home.

Rinoa was also pretty excited to get inside. “C’mon, Squall! Let’s go inside already!” she said, tugging my arm towards the door.

Don’t think you can start calling me Squall, by the way. Rinoa is a special case. It’s still Leon to you, got it?

You never got the chance to meet Rinoa. She’s not actually from Radiant Garden. I met her back at Traverse Town, back before you showed up. Back then we… We spent a lot of time together, and I think that’s enough that needs to be said.

“So, do you think the front door is just going to be unlocked?” Yuffie asked.

“No, but that’s why we brought Rinoa.” I answered. Yuffie was young when we had to flee Radiant Garden. So, she didn’t know that Bastions were typically magically sealed.

“Really? That’s the only reason you brought me?” Rinoa teased. She likes doing that. She says the face I make when she teases is me is hilarious, and truth be told, I can’t say I hate when she does it.

“Really.” I replied flatly. My best attempt at a poker face didn’t seem to convince her. She was right, of course, and before long I broke the façade and smiled back.

I thought I’d lost her for far too long to bother pretending to be above it all. I was just glad to see she was safe most days. The only reason I knew she was even alive was because of a letter she sent me not too long after you’d last left Radiant Garden. But, even if she hadn’t returned, we’d have thought of some way to get inside. After all Ultimecia’s Bastion should have been safe. There should have been no one inside.

“So, who was Ultimecia?” Yuffie asked as Rinoa got to work defusing the magic on the front door.

“She was a witch. She exceled at time magic but had a habit of abusing her powers on others.” I responded, recounting the few times I’d run into her.

“The preferred term is Sorceress, Squall.” Rinoa said. It wasn’t the first time she’d told me that. She didn’t like it when I called a Sorceress a witch.

“Hey, I agree with Leon.” Cid said. “As far as Sorceresses go, Ultimecia was the worst.” It wasn’t often that Cid would jump to my defense. Usually he’d be the first to line up and start finding a way under my skin. “One time back when Leon was still in training, she riled up one of his fellow cadets. He tried to demonstrate why she shouldn’t mess with him. So he charged and took a swing near her. He wasn’t trying to hurt her or anything. Hell, he purposefully missed by a wide margin! But she used some sort of spell and you’d never guess who appeared behind him!”

“Who?” Yuffie asked, fully absorbed in his story.

“It was himself!” Cid jumped to emphasis his point. “Or a copy of himself, rather. She replayed the event, so a copy of himself ended up cleaving himself from behind! It was pretty freaky to witness. Just one moment ago there was only one of him, the next there was another. With his _own_ blood on the blade!”

“Woah, that’s creepy.” Yuffie whispered, as if Cid had told her a ghost story by a campfire.

“I still don’t like you using that word.” Rinoa pouted. I couldn’t blame her. Witch was a loaded word in Radiant Garden and Traverse Town. More than a couple of fights have broken out because one person accused someone else of being a witch.

“…Fair enough. I’ll try not to say it again. Sorry.” I added the apology at the end, an attempt to make sure Rinoa knew I didn’t think of her as a witch.

Eventually Rinoa got the door open. Proudly, she pushed the door open, revealing the inside of the building to human eyes for the first time in nearly a decade.

There was something wrong with this place almost immediately. The place was spotless. It wouldn’t even need dusting let alone a restoration committee.

“What in the-?” Cid ran inside, examining the place for some kind of trick.

“This isn’t right.” I announced quietly to the group. I couldn’t understand what was going on.

“You guys said she was good with time magic, right?” Yuffie asked. “So maybe she made it so the inside of the Bastion doesn’t age?” It was a fair idea. But a spell like that would usually end a little while after the Sorceress had died.

“I don’t like this. But I also don’t like the idea of leaving after only just getting in here.” I told the group.

“How ‘bout we split into groups of two?” Cid suggested. “We can explore the place faster that way.”

The idea had merit, but it left me uneasy. But we came all this way, we might as well see what was inside. “Very well, but we meet back here in fifteen minutes. Yuffie, go with Cid and explore the East side of the Bastion. Rinoa and I will explore the west side. If anything out of the ordinary happens, even if you think there _might_ be some ordinary explanation for it, you run back here and wait for us to get back.”

I guess I must have been lecturing again. Because Yuffie shot up to her feet, excited as ever, and practically exploded with energy. “Yeah, yeah. We get it Leon! C’mon Cid, Let’s go exploring!”

Cid laughed as she pulled him along “Hah! You sure you ain’t scared of running into the big bad Sorceress?”

“Nah, I ain’t afraid of some long dead spook!”

I had to force myself not to smile as they bounded down the East side hall together. I get envious of them sometimes. I don’t know how they can be so open all the time. How they can just laugh at themselves whenever the catch themselves acting dumb and not let it eat away at them.

“You ready, Squall?” Rinoa asked, pulling me away from my thoughts.

“Yeah, how about you?” I said, turning to face her.

She just flashed me a smile, “of course! Together we have nothing to fear.”

We walked down the hall together, checking each side room in the hall that we came across. Aside from the fact that all the rooms appeared to have been cleaned recently in an otherwise abandoned castle, everything appeared to be normal.

Then as we opened the door at the end of the hall. I saw something strange within. Inside this room was everyone, Cid, Yuffie, even Rinoa. I turned back towards the Rinoa behind me and gave her a confused look, hoping she’d confirm what I saw.

“What’s the matter, Squall?” She looked at me worriedly. Was I in the way? I pointed into the room. She followed my direction and looked in. I expected her to react with surprise, the same way I was. “Looks like another empty room to me. Is there something I’m missing?”

I looked back inside the room, it certainly wasn’t empty. Cid, Yuffie, and the other Rinoa were still inside. “Yuffie and Cid are in there. Can’t you see? What about the other person?” I was nervous about mentioning that the other person inside was Rinoa, I wasn’t sure how she’d respond to that.

“It’s an empty room, Squall.” Rinoa answered, she looked at me with such concern I almost wished I hadn’t said anything. “Do you recognize the other person?”

“No, it’s clearly not empty. Look, there they are!” I said, trying to avoid the question. I should have told her it was her in the room. I guess I was worried she wouldn’t believe me.

“Maybe we should go back…” It was the right thing to suggest, those were my orders after all. But something inside me told me I had to do something

“Hey! Yuffie, Cid! Look at me!” I shouted into the room. They didn’t even react, like they couldn’t hear me. “Damn it, don’t ignore me!” I shouted again. I had enough of this insanity, I was going to get to the bottom of this now.

I marched into the room. I had to know who these people really were, they couldn’t have been what they looked like. This hall didn’t curve far enough for it to have connected with the East wing yet, so it had to be some kind of trick. And marching right in there to get a closer look was might solve what was going on. Rinoa shouted my name as I walked into the room.

Cid was the first to notice me. Just as I crossed the door frame, he instantly jumped in shock. “Leon?! Where the hell have you been?! I looked around. Yuffie looked just as shocked as Cid. But the Rinoa in this room looked like she was on the verge of tears.

“What’s going on? Who are you people and why do you look like that?” I gripped my Gunblade just in case things got violent. Instead they looked even more surprised.

“What do you mean, who are we!?” The Yuffie look alike yelled at me, offended.

“Leon, we’ve been looking for you.” Cid looked me over as he said it. It was a pretty convincing display of concern. “Say, are you okay?” I almost believed it was really him, but the real Cid wasn’t so touchy feely.

I decided that now would be a good time to see how my Rinoa was reacting to all of this. I twisted around, hoping that she might be able to help figure out what was going on. But when I turned around, the door I had come from was closed.

I ripped the door open, hoping to find her behind it, but instead of the side of the hall I’d come from. It was the beginning of the hall Rinoa and I had started from. My blood ran cold. Looking back at the room I was currently in, it looked exactly like the entrance from when we first entered. I was worried I’d lost her. I made a quick promise to myself that I wouldn’t let that happen. Not again. I cupped my hands and shouted for Rinoa.

No response.

I prepared to do it again. But the Rinoa of this room wrapped her around me. I tried to shake her off, but she clung onto me.

“I’m right here, Squall. I thought I’d lost you!” I had no idea what she was talking about, so I tried to explain to them that illusions like them wouldn’t work on me. After all, that’s what they must have been, right? Some sort of trap left behind by Ultimecia before the Heatless got her.

“You’re not the real Rinoa! Let go of me!” She clung on to me as if I were a life preserver that she’d fallen overboard with. “She was right behind me when I came in here!”

“C’mon Leon, what happened to you?!” Yuffie asked.

“Nothing happened to me.” I responded.

“The hell you talkin’ about, Leon? You’ve been missing for two days.” Cid said, sounding offended enough to almost make me believe him. “These two have been worried sick about you.”

“Don’t you remember?” The Rinoa from this room asked, “You started talking about seeing people in a room at the end of the hall. Then when you walked in you disappeared.” She looked up at me, her eyes were glassy as she squeezed me again, as if to check I was really there. “I thought I lost you! And now you act like I’m a stranger!” The mix of anger and sadness in her voice certainly sounded genuine…

No! I couldn’t let her trick me! Somewhere in this Bastion was _my_ Rinoa! “How do you know about that?! I yelled. “Have you been watching us?! You are not tricking me! I would know if I’ve been here overnight, much less two days!” I had to get this Rinoa off me. I tried to shake her off again, this time much more forcefully than before. She yelped as she fell to the ground. “I don’t know what’s going on here. But I’m not falling for your lies. I need to find the _real_ Rinoa. So just tell who you all are before I get out of here! Are you some kind of illusion? Manifestations of Darkness trying to trick me?”

“We’re not an illusion! But you’re a jerk like always, Leon!” The Yuffie look alike yelled at me. “Why’d we even bother coming to find you if this was how you were going to treat us!”

I was so fed up with these ‘people’. If they were even that. I ran through the door I’d come from, leaving the three fakes behind. I had to find the others. The _real_ others. Yuffie, Cid, and most importantly, Rinoa.

They shouted and chased after me. The one that looked and pretended to be Rinoa was the closest one behind me. But she was also the first to give up. She fell to her knees from what I assumed was exhaustion, or maybe whatever magic conjured her wouldn’t let her go too far from the room I’d found them in. After that, the other two quickly gave up on the chase as well.

I scoffed that those fakes had ever tried to trick me. Each of them, the real ones, could have run miles before needing a break. Well, maybe Cid would need a break. But regardless, I kept going until the slight curve in the hallway eventually obscured them from my sight.

Now that they were out of my sight, I allowed myself to slow down. I was surprised at just how heavily I was breathing. I walked slowly, catching my breath as I tried to make sense of everything that had just happened.

There was something strange about this Bastion, Sora. The unnatural cleanliness of it was one thing, but now this? Ultimecia might have left some spells and traps behind when the Heartless consumed this world, but surely most of them would have been sprung by now. Regardless of the cause of the strangeness to this place. I had to the Rinoa I left behind, the _real_ Rinoa.

A thought occurred to me. What if those people who looked like Rinoa, Yuffie, and Cid weren’t the trap? I was so preoccupied with getting back to the Rinoa I left behind that I hadn’t considered that something else could have happened. Ultimecia specialized in time magic after all. Maybe somehow, I was thrown through time…

I leaned against the wall as I considered what to do next. Should I turn back and find the others I’d just run from? Maybe… But first, I had to return to the door at the end of the hall. If those others really were illusions or fakes or anything, then Rinoa might still be waiting by there. I began walking again when I heard a voice.

_“How interesting… Two of them call you Leon. But one calls you Squall.”_

The temperature in the room seemed to drop as the words formed in the air. I searched the room, trying to find who was speaking. It sounded like a woman, but I couldn’t see anyone. “Who’s there?” I called back.

_“Which is it, boy? Leon or Squall? Who are you?”_

The voice’s tone sounded amused, but there was something dangerous about it too. It had an almost enchantingly threatening feel to it. “It’ Leon. Now it’s your turn. Who are you?”

A response didn’t come. Instead a door on the other side of the hall creaked open. I told myself I should leave. That I should run back to the others, apologize and get out of here. Something was going on here and I was convinced that being by them, real or not, was safer than staying separated. But curiosity got the better of me. I moved towards the open door and peeked inside.

Unlike the rest of the Bastion, this room was built primarily from brick, and, somehow, this room alone was exposed to the open air of a night sky. Millions of stars shone in the inky blackness overhead. It took me second before I realized where I was.

Somehow, I was back in Traverse Town. I looked back at the door I’d emerged from. The old Accessory Shop that Cid occasionally ran stood with a single door ajar. The room inside was not the usual one however. Somehow squeezed inside the Accessory Shop was the hallway I had been running through earlier.

I stared in confusion at the door, but also relieved to see that unlike last time I walked through a door here, this one wasn’t a one-way trip. I only turned around as I heared the sound of a high heel click against the pavement behind me.

Just down the steps of the Accessory Shop, standing in the middle of the square, was Rinoa. She stood alone watching the stars and wearing the same pale dress she’d once worn years ago

“Rinoa.” I spoke. But she didn’t seem to hear me. “What are you doing here?” Again, no response. I called out to her a few more times, all to the same effect, when a familiar voice drew both my and her attention behind me.

“The stars are beautiful tonight, aren’t they?” I couldn’t believe it. It was another me. Although he looked a deal younger than I was, most notably the scar on my face was missing from his.

“Did you see?” Rinoa asked, pointing at the sky. “There was a shooting star just a little while ago.”

“Is that a good sign?” The younger me asked as the two of them stood there smiling at each other.

Rinoa playfully hummed. “I like to think it is. You’re not usually the one staying behind while others go flying off to other worlds. But every time a Gummi Ship flies off, I always see a shooting star go by. And just before you land another shooting star will go by, like clockwork. I like to imagine that each one I see is you. Flying around amongst the worlds, helping save others from the Heartless.” Rinoa looked back up at the sky, searching for more moving stars. “Who knows, maybe that shooting star that just went by was another Gummi Ship piloted by someone else. Or maybe it was the worlds wishing us a safe journey.”

The younger me chuckled. I remembered thinking at that moment, that she was such a romantic. Expecting everything happening in the night sky to have some greater meaning to it. “Maybe you’re right.” The younger me then stepped forward and took her hand and began leading her in a silent dance.

The silence was short lived as, just before Rinoa could ask what he was doing, the younger me let loose a carefully rehearsed aero spell behind her. Moving the needle of an old phonograph he’d placed the day before, causing it to begin playing an old song from Rinoa’s home world.

I watched them whisper sweet words to each other. I couldn’t hear them, but I remembered them well-enough. If I could, I would’ve watched the two of us move to the song forever. It was nice to be able to relive this moment from the past. But the woman’s voice from before interrupted my watching of the past.

_“How cute. A Sorceress and her Knight, sharing a dance under the stars.”_

It was the same voice from before. Like before there was no one around who spoke the words. I turned back to see the two of us still holding each other and moving in a lazy circle to the song. Apparently, they hadn’t noticed the interruption. Well, I guess I would have remembered if there was an interruption from a disembodied voice at this moment.

_“Tell me, Knight. What happens next? For such a happy moment, it is trapped under the shadow of the darkest part in your timeline. What makes this moment so dark to you?”_

There was something… frightening about this voice. I couldn’t speak. It spoke with such malice. It didn’t speak with genuine interest or curiosity about what happened next. No, it relished each word, as if it took glee knowing that each word was a knife being thrust into my heart and each next word was just a twist of the blade. It knew that there was a reason why I didn’t think about this very often.

For a moment the voice spoke sweetly. _“Speak, my dear child. Tell me what happened.”_ I still couldn’t bring myself to speak to it. Eventually it lost its patience. The voice broke into a commanding tone. _“Do as I say! Or I will reveal it for myself.”_

Finally, I found my voice. “I lost her.”

The voice returned to the mockingly sweet tone from before. _“What happened?”_

“She insisted on coming with me to another world. She’d become a Sorceress and wanted to come with me to make sure I’d be okay.”

_“Would you like to see your final moments with her again?”_

“Please no…”

_“I suppose I could grant you that one request…”_

I let out a sigh of relief knowing that I wouldn’t have to face that day again.

“Leon, I want to go with you.” Rinoa said to him. I gripped my chest as soon as I heard the words.

“Rinoa, it’s not safe on that world. The Heartless have been tearing it apart looking for the keyhole. We can’t save it. We can only get people off it before it’s too late.”

Rinoa pulled away from the dance. “C’mon Leon! You know I can take care of myself. I’ve been defending Traverse Town from the Heartless with Yuffie and Aerith when you guys are away.”

“And I need you to keep doing that and making sure they’re safe. As much as Yuffie thinks she’s some great ninja, she’s still little, and Aerith isn’t a fighter. She’s a great healer, but if they get separated, they could get hurt. You’re a sorceress, you have more than enough power to keep everyone safe.”

Rinoa rolled her eyes. “They’re just small fry,” She complained. “None of the Heartless are interested in taking the Heart of Traverse Town. Most days they don’t even show up.”

“Rinoa…” I tried to think of something to say that could convince her, but she cut me off before I could say anything.

“And besides, my powers are stronger when I’m near my Knight.” The mischievous grin spread across her face. It still had the same effect on me now as it did back then. Us two Leons matched her with a smile of our own.

“Why are you being so insistent this time?” He asked.

“You’re not the only one talking about how dangerous this world is. Everybody that’s going is nervous about this mission. Especially Brom, its his world that’s on the brink That’s why I want to come, to keep you safe. From now on, wherever we go, we’ll go together.”

“Is that a promise or a threat? Please don’t follow me into the bathroom just because we have to ‘go together’”

Rinoa’s attempt at seriousness broke as she giggled at my response. “Shut up, Leon! You know what I meant.” Rinoa took a moment to compose herself. She looked back at me with the seriousness she’d momentarily lost. “I lost my world, you know. I’m not going to lose you too.”

I watched myself sigh and rest his head in his hand. “Alright, alright. But I’m going to make a request too.”

She peered into the old me’s eyes, trying to guess what he was about to ask. “Alright what is it? Just know, that if I don’t like it I’m not going to do it, Leon.”

The other me looked directly into Rinoa’s eyes. “Call me Squall.”

“Huh?”

“My real name. It’s-”

“I know.” Rinoa interrupted.

“Huh?” I stifled a laugh as I watched the other me pull a confused face. I could finally see why Rinoa always liked to pull my leg. It _was_ kind of a funny face.

“It’s not exactly your best kept secret.” Rinoa said with a wink. “Yuffie is always calling you that and Aerith explained where ‘Leon’ came from shortly after we started to spend time together.”

“Those two…” He groaned. “Listen, after we lost Radiant Garden it didn’t feel right that Squall Leonheart got to survive while so many others were lost. I was training to be a soldier, but I couldn’t save anyone. For a long time, I thought I should’ve done more, gotten someone else onboard, I should’ve just done something of use. So, I refused to be Squall. In my opinion, Squall died that night. But Rinoa, I want you to call me Squall. I want to hear the name come from you.” For moment she was quiet, I remembered worrying I’d said something wrong. I looked away for a moment, but when I turned back and saw her face, I knew I was alright.

I thought my line was sappy, but the face Rinoa was pulling was putting that to shame. “Oh Leon, would you like a little wine to go with all that cheese?”

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this, Rinoa. But it’s Squall. Also, I’m pretty sure that line usually goes the other way around.”

This caught Rinoa’s attention. “Oh really? Does Squall Leonhart get told that a lot?”

“N-No. Listen this isn’t what I’m trying to talk about, okay?”

“I don’t know…” Rinoa smiled. “I think I’d like to meet this Squall. Were you a whiny kid?”

“I feel like I’m losing control of this conversation.”

Rinoa giggled again. “I bet you hate that feeling. Don’t you, Mr. Leader?” I watched myself press a palm against his face.

“And yet, it seems like everyone I know is constantly trying to make me feel that way.”

“That’s not true. You just make it so easy to push your buttons.”

“Alright, fine. I’ll talk to the other about brining you along. Just try to be careful okay?” The younger me finally relented.

“Yay!” Rinoa cheered. “Don’t worry, Squall. I’ll be careful.” We both looked so carefree at this moment. But I could feel my stomach tying into knots.

“Come on, we’ll go talk to the others about bringing you to Sleepy Hollow.” The knots in my stomach tightened as I heard my younger self say those words. I couldn’t take it anymore. I knew how this story would end. I screamed into the sky, hoping the voice following me would hear.

“That’s enough!” Silence followed, so I tried calling for it again. “Please let me out of here!”

_“The exit is right behind you, Knight… If you want to leave this memory then all you must do, is leave.”_

I ran through the doors of the Accessory Shop. I ran away from the scene behind me, I couldn’t bear to watch any further knowing what would happen next.

I stood bent over and panting outside of the room containing Traverse Town. I felt sick, like at any moment I throw up from what I’d witnessed. I hadn’t thought of that night in years. I tried not to think about it. Because of what happened the next day. What happened to her on that other world was my fault.

“I have to find the others…” I said between deep breaths. “Once I find the others we can get out of here.”

_“You tried so hard to get in my Bastion and when I let you in further all you want to do is leave?”_

“Your Bastion? Who are you!?”

_“Quiet boy! If this is my Bastion and the Bastion belongs to Ultimecia, then you already know who I am!”_

“Ultimecia? But you should be dead by now! The Heartless should have swarmed this place along with you nearly a decade ago!”

_“Oh, they tried. They tried to enter uninvited, much like you… And you will share the same fate as those creatures did! You and everyone else who has entered here. I tried to be generous. I took their leader and allowed them to leave. But they returned, and now they must also pay. I will make them a part of my Bastion once I grow bored with them.”_

“Let me explain!” I yelled into the air.

_“I already know! You dare enter my home and try to steal from me, boy?”_

The words dripped with malice. I looked all over the room hoping I’d find where they came from.

_“This is my Bastion! Do not think for a moment that I will tolerate trespassers in here!”_

I shouted at the walls. “Where are you!” The woman’s voice seemed to come from everywhere. As if I were trapped in the middle of a dark cave and the echo of her voice was closing in on me.

“Behind you, Knight.” The words whispered from where I couldn’t see. My heart stilled as I slowly turned around. For the first time in years, I saw Ultimecia. She stood there almost casually. “Of course, isn’t a Knight supposed to protect his Sorceress? You’re just a boy with a complex.”

“You **Witch!** ” I screamed at her. I drew my Gunblade and ran at her, ready for a fight.

She didn’t say a word. She simply smirked at me, and with a snap of her fingers she vanished. A moment later I began to hear a voice. It was low and quiet at first but as it repeated it started to grow. It took me awhile to recognize it. But no doubt about it, it was Rinoa’s voice!

_I still don’t like you using that word_

It began again just as soon as it finished.

_I still don’t like you using that word_

_I still don’t like you using that word_

_I still don’t like you using that word_

It wouldn’t end! I covered my ears, I tried screaming. Nothing would drown it out. It couldn’t be drowned out because the sound wasn’t in the air. It was in my ears. Ultimecia had replayed on loop the moment I heard the words, it was my own eardrums constantly repeating that mantra to me. The moment they should have stopped, they looped in time and beat those words into my mind again

_I still don’t like you using that word_

_I still don’t like you using that word_

_I still don’t like you using that word_

It wouldn’t end. I apologized to the air. I begged for Rinoa’s forgiveness. I looked for Ultimecia to demand she make it stop, but she wasn’t there. She was gone, vanished into thin air.

_I still don’t_

_like you_

_using that word_

Through the noise I heard something behind me. It had to be Ultimecia! I couldn’t think straight. In that moment it could be nothing but that. Turning around I didn’t even register what was behind me as I swung. I heard my Gunblade cut through flesh between the brief pauses of the words. The words began to quiet down in my head. Feeling a bit calmer I finally opened my eyes, expecting to see the witch and my blade stuck in her.

But it wasn’t her. It was a male figure wearing black leather, with a pair of red angel wings embroidered on it. The words began to thunder in my head again.

_like you_

_still don’t_

_using that word_

Finally, it occurred to me what I was looking at. It was _my_ back. It began to fade away just the realization occurred to me. A moment later, I felt my own Gunblade swing into my back, cut through the leather jacket I’d been looking at.

I stood there, not sure how to react. The words wouldn’t stop! I just wanted them to stop! After standing there for a while, I’m not sure how long, but just as I felt the sword in my body begin to fade from time. I heard the words once more. Low and distorted, a cruel parody of Rinoa’s voice with none of her personality or charm.

**_I STILL DON’T LIKE YOU USING THAT WORD_ **

I fell to the ground after that. The words finally going silent. There was a sense of relief when they ended. A moment later I could hear footsteps approach me as I laid on the ground. My energy bled from me, stopping me from getting up to see who it was. But the voice was recognizably Ultimecia’s.

“An idea has occurred to me, boy. Perhaps I can still get more entertainment from you and your friends.” I didn’t say anything. The wound in my back was large and deep. “Don’t worry, boy. Your friends will find you. But will they recognize you?” Ultimecia laughed as she asked the question. “I will even let you see them again, but only if you can solve a little riddle for me.”

I could feel something changing. It’s difficult to describe. It was as if I was being slowly pulled away from my own body. I feared I was dying. I hoped that, if anything, I was somehow losing my Heart. At least I might have the chance to recomplete myself the same way you did, Sora. Fuse my Heart back with my body.

I started to lose consciousness as I bleed out and the Rinoa’s borrowed words began hammering in my head in my head again. I was growing numb to everything. The feeling on my skin, my worries, I even started to stop caring about the disappointed words in my head. In the distance, somehow piercing through the words Ultimecia forced me to listen to again and again, I heard an ear-piercing scream coming from Rinoa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the part where I pull out my tin cup and beg for comments. Please tell me what you thought, I feed off your opinions.


	2. From Leon to Sora (Letter 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a little while, hasn't it? I struggled with this chapter more than I was expecting to. Despite having a working outline for this chapter since before I started writing the first chapter, I couldn't quite get it to sound right. But I'm mostly happy with how this came out. I hope you will be too!

Okay… Where was I? Right, I had just fallen unconscious and heard Rinoa scream. I suppose I could tell you the reason why she did that, but she’s asked me to hold off. Something about not wanting me to ‘spoil the drama behind the moment.’

Listen, don’t worry. We’ll get to it when we get to it. I didn’t have a lot of time to consider why she screamed in the first place. I couldn’t even remember what had happened at first.

I awoke in darkness. At first, I thought it must have been night. But as my eyes adjusted, I could see I was lying on a dirt path in the middle of a huge forest. Its great canopy above blocked out all but the smallest rays of light. And this road was framed by large amounts of foliage on both sides, meaning the path was probably made from constant foot traffic rather than a concentrated effort to make a trail.

There was something odd about this forest. The shadows further away from me seemed wriggle and move. At first, I thought it was my imagination. I approached the edge of the path, my vision slowly becoming more accustomed to the dark. I could see now that it wasn’t my imagination.

It was Heartless. Swarms of them moving in every direction, spilling out into rivers of pulsating shadows.

The sheer scale of the Heartless in this forest made me feel uneasy. I scanned the woods for an exit. Was I still in Ultimecia’s Bastion? The Heartless didn’t seem to notice me, so one point for that theory.

At least for the moment, I didn’t feel like I was in danger. If it was anything like Traverse Town, I wouldn’t be able to interact with anything, and vice versa. But I had to wonder where was everyone else was? I hoped they were safe, but in a Sorceress’s Bastion that was probably a stupid hope to have.

I wondered how long I’d been unconscious for. If I was inside a room in Ultimecia’s Bastion, would it even matter how long I’d been unconscious for? I also wondered if these rooms could only appear as places I’ve been before? And if that was the case, where was this place?

I didn’t have time to think about it for very long, as a burst of light illuminated the woods and scattered the nearby Heartless. Walking out from the source, a proud Rinoa clapped her hands together as if she had somehow sullied them by casting the spell. “And that’s how you take care of a few Heartless, Traverse Town style.”

“You’ll certainly make things easier,” I said automatically. “Unless, you exhaust yourself with large spells like that. Otherwise I’ll be lugging you around like deadweight.” I didn’t know why I said that. I felt compelled to say it. It’s not like she could hear me, so it didn’t matter what I said.

“Gosh Leon, all you do is worry. Can’t you think positive for once?” Rinoa said. Was she responding to me? I tried to think of something to say, just to confirm she was really reacting to me. But everything felt… _Weird._ Like I wasn’t really in control.

“I’m plenty positive. Positive that this is a bad idea.” Again, I spoke automatically. It was like falling asleep while still trying to have a conversation with someone. I was only half aware of what I was saying.

Rinoa rolled her eyes. “Yeah you don’t need to tell me that. As soon as we got here you thought the Heartless blocked out the sky.”

“It could have been that, you never know what might happen.”

“You parked in a forest on Sleepy Hollow! Brom never stops talking about how dark it gets in the thick of the forest even on cloudless days.”

“Sure, but I don’t come here often. And it’s _very_ dark.”

Rinoa shot both eyebrows up. “Really? It’s dark? That’s why you started screaming about how this was a bad idea and that you’d killed me?”

“I didn’t scream.”

Rinoa walked over and grabbed my hand. “Oh, come on. We can’t just stand around all day,” She said as she pulled me down the path. “And you raising your voice from a dull murmur to normal speaking level is screaming in my book.”

Rinoa dragged me down the path until it led out of the forest. I was completely gone at this point. It was like I was watching a dream, not fully in control or even conscious but still watching the whole thing.

Eventually the path exited the forest, revealing a small village. A swarm of Heartless that rivaled the amount seen at Radiant Garden when Organization 13 attacked was crawling over the ruins the village.

We were surrounded by a large group of them. They were a more powerful variety than what was usually seen on Traverse Town. Invisibles and Behemoths attacked and Rinoa was forced to exert herself just as she wanted as she cast powerful spell after powerful spell.

It all came flooding back to me. The forest that blocked out the sun, the swarm of Heartless, and Ultimecia’s offer to take me back to the day I lost Rinoa… I was relieving the day I’d lost Rinoa. Unlike in Traverse Town I wasn’t just watching it happen again. I was a forced participant in this recreation.

fighting the Heartless was uneventful for the most part, aside from Rinoa almost blowing me up a few times. So, I’ll take a moment to explain how she and I came to be walking through the woods in the first place. If I remember correctly, the reason we landed in the forest was to avoid anyone seeing Rinoa. I announced Rinoa’s decision to join us on the mission to Sleepy Hollow back in Traverse Town.

However, most thought it would be for the best to leave her behind. I agreed with them that it was dangerous to take her to a dying World for her first-time off world. But she wasn’t asking for permission.

So, I took her with me in secret. Being the unofficial leader and most experienced with other Worlds in this sort of trouble, I told them I’d land in the deepest part of the Darkness on Sleepy Hollow and search for any survivors. If there were any, they were going to need the help of a Sorceress.

You’re too nice, Sora. If you said you were diving into the heart of darkness all by yourself, I’m willing to bet at least half of your friends would jump you and the other half would hold you down. But even before my world fell apart, I’ve been… closed off. Most people left me alone when I said I was doing something. If Leon is a cold, unfriendly guy. If he says he’s doing something most people won’t bother trying to change his mind. The only person, other than those from Radiant Garden, who saw pass that façade was Rinoa.

Which brings me back to the Heartless. I slayed the final Heartless, a Defender, before Rinoa and I began searching the remains of the village for survivors. It was a grizzly sight. I was thankful that when one fell victim to the Heartless it didn’t leave a corpse, or any evidence that someone had been attack other than maybe the surroundings showing damage from a fight. I don’t know if I could honestly bear to look at this place if bodies were left lying around. The town was in absolute shambles. Embers still lit in fireplaces let out weak gray wisps out from chimneys and sides of houses were completely blown open. Most houses appeared to have been blasted from the outside. But what chilled me to the bone was the houses that appeared to have been blown open from the inside.

Thoughts of someone turning into a Heartless within their own home among desperate friends and family. Suddenly turning on the ones that cared the most for you, an entire personality wiped away and replaced with an instinctual desire for the Hearts of others.

Seeing the desolation brought back uncomfortable memories of home. I guess Rinoa must have noticed, or maybe she felt the same thing, as she spoke up.

“How did things get so bad here?” She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. A nearby house we passed burned from when the wind must have picked up some embers and engulfed the house. “How did nobody notice all the Heartless sooner?”

I pulled my attention away from the wreckage, trying my hardest to keep my vision from drifting back to it. “Probably just unlucky,” I said. “You’ve seen how dark the woods can get. It’s the perfect place for a Shadow Heartless to run about unseen.”

“You think one found the Keyhole to this world under the cover of dark?” Rinoa asked.

“Well, I don’t know for certain. But that would be my guess…” My answer didn’t seem to satisfy Rinoa. Her face scrunched as she considered it. “You got a problem with that explanation?” I asked.

“I don’t know… It just feels odd. Like, this all started so suddenly. And it’s not like this is just some random world. Brom is from here. So, it’s not like they don’t have ways of contacting us.”

Brom Bones was a resident of Sleepy Hollow. In fact, he was considered a local hero even before I arrived.

Sometimes keeping the World Order can be difficult. Especially when you’re being questioned by the residents on what the Heartless are and where you came from. Sometimes it’s just way easier to say you’re from another World.

That’s what I did one day. Back when I was younger and angrier and didn’t bother to come up with cover stories on Worlds I arrived at. Brom Bones was the local town hero at Sleepy Hollow and helped me fight off the Heartless from his world. When he learned about the Heartless and the danger they poised to other Worlds, he quickly offered a helping hand and became a member of our group back at Traverse Town.

I mean why not? He was a friendly, strong, and loved to have a drink with everybody at the end of the day. And he soon found himself very popular in both Sleepy Hollow and Traverse Town. Before long he was trusted enough to be considered the second in command in Traverse Town.

Even I grew to like him. Well, maybe tolerate would be better. He was a bit too loud and outgoing for my taste. Always acting like a buddy of mine. I just tried to avoid him, rather than let him pull me along with his friends. But he was strong and capable. And being able to set a good first impression was a valuable skill I lacked.

“Leon, do you hear something?” Rinoa asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. I stopped to listen, the sound of hoofbeats echoed in the distance.

“Now that you mention it,” I responded. We both turned to see a man in black armor riding towards us. He was difficult to make out among the shadows around us. Assuming it was someone from the village dressed in protective gear, we waited for the rider to slow down as he approached us.

But he wasn’t slowing down. In fact, he was headed right towards me!

“Leon, watch out!” Rinoa cried. I dove out of the way, pulling out my Gunblade as soon as I got to my feet and eyed my assailant cautiously.

I was ready to yell at the careless rider for almost killing me, but the words got stuck in my throat as I got a better look at him. The space between his shoulders where his head should have been was empty. Dark wisps of smoke floated off his armor as well. It smelled rank of death and disease. A booming laugh erupted from the hole his neck should have been. I didn't know it yet, but we were face to face with the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow.

Slowly the horse he sat upon dissolved into a cloud of black smoke itself, and the man gracefully descended to his feet. I gripped my Gunblade tighter in preparation for a fight. _Was he a Heartless, or something else entirely?_ I wondered. “Keep your distance, Rinoa!” I shouted, careful to not to tear my gaze away from the unknown entity.

He lunged at me with ferocious speed. I sidestepped a moment too late his blade from sliding across the bridge of my nose. Rinoa screamed as blood ruptured from my face. She held out her hands ready to cast a spell to help. But the Headless Horseman kept the pressure on me, not allowing me any space. I parried blow after blow trying to get some distance between us. I darted my eyes towards Rinoa, she was ready to unleash any number of powerful spells. But she couldn’t get a clear shot at him without hitting me in the crossfire.

Looking away from my opponent turned out to be a mistake, his gauntleted fist collided with my stomach while I was distracted by Rinoa. The wind was knocked out of me. I felt paralyzed as I wheezed for a breath. I could only watch as he raised his sword for what would be a fatal strike.

“No!” Wind gushed from Rinoa’s hands. Like a ragdoll, I was lifted off the ground and thrown through the air back towards the forest.

I crash-landed and slid a few meters in a puddle of mud, only coming to a stop after a loud squelch. I laid there wide eyed and dazed for a couple moments. I don’t know how long exactly I laid there, but it must have been awhile. As the sound of the Horseman’s horse trotting through the woods snapped me out of my daze.

I forced myself up and began moving through the forest, trying to keep a low profile. I still felt a little disorganized after being thrown, but if the Horseman was hunting for me, then I had to keep moving. It was only now that I noticed my Gunblade was missing. I felt naked without it to protect myself with. But if I stayed quiet and out of sight, I should be alright…

The sharp sound of a twig cracking underneath my foot echoed through the forest. A deep dark laugh emanating from somewhere within the forest drew a cold sweat from me. I scanned the forest for him. Either I hit my head when I landed and I couldn’t see well, his dark armor was helping to conceal him in the forest, or he just wasn’t physically there. I swallowed the lump that was building in my throat. The longer I stood still, the more possibilities formed in my head as to why I couldn’t see him.,

Where was Rinoa? Was she left alone with him? The Horseman had stood close enough to me that I her aero spell likely picked both of us up, but I wasn’t certain. I wasn’t certain about a lot of things. All I knew was that I had to find her and quick.

The Horseman hadn’t found me yet, so I allowed myself to hope he hadn’t heard the twig snapping.

Another laugh echoed through the woods. Just like last time it was a booming laugh that seemed to bounce off the trees in the forest. If anything was different about it; it was maybe louder than last time, or closer. I quickened my pace, trying to find my way out of the forest and back to Rinoa.

The faster I moved, the louder the hoofbeats in the distance seemed to become. Was he right behind me? I couldn’t look back. I was too busy ducking underneath branches and weaving between trees to look back and check.

I ran harder, pushing my legs to the point of burning. I could see light filtering through the edge of the forest.

A building was visible beyond the forest line! It was similar in architecture to the wrecked buildings Rinoa and I had examined earlier. I hurried my pace, at last breaking clear from the natural grown labyrinth I’d found myself in. On a dime I twisted and turned, ready to view my pursuer.

Except no one was there. Hesitantly, I took a few steps back into the forest. I was certain the sounds I heard didn’t come from my imagination. I considered calling out for Rinoa. I wondered if it was possible that I mistook some other sound for hoofbeats. But without a weapon to defend myself with I’d just be making myself a target.

I heard a crash come from my side. A tree toppled over. It would’ve landed on me if I hadn’t stepped out of the way in time. However, the tree was the least of my worries. The Headless Horseman from before was charging at me from out of the darkness, more trees fell aside as they collided with his shoulders. Eventually he grabbed me and tackled me to the ground. Instinctively I tried to strike my assailant in the face. A deep booming laugh erupted once again from the hole in his chest as my fist collided with air.

I pressed a leg into his torso and kicked, somehow finding the strength to lift him off me. With one hand, I grabbed his sword from his belt. Effortlessly, it slid from his scabbard as he flew off me. The Headless Horseman landed a few feet away from me. Tired and injured, I sucked a breath between my teeth as I picked myself up.

I held the stolen sword defensively. The Headless Horseman didn’t immediately charge me, instead he followed my movements. Slowly I backed out of the forest. The Headless Horseman followed but was careful to keep the distance between us the same.

He may have been missing his head, but he wasn’t brainless. He didn’t act like the many instinctively aggressive Heartless I’ve fought in the past. He seemed to study me instead. He made small swift movements towards me before retreating back to the distance we’d been standing off at earlier. He was probably testing to see how jumpy I was.

I was thankful that I’d managed to grab his sword earlier. I wasn’t in any condition to fight a fully armored opponent with just my bare hands. But with this weapon I could at least threaten my opponent.

We stepped out from the forest’s edge. If it wasn’t for the mud I was covered in, I’d probably be glistening as the sun shone on me.

Again, The Headless Horseman advanced on me. If he did it to intimidate me, it wasn’t working anymore. He’d done it enough times that I already knew he’d back off just like clockwork.

But it was different this time. He didn’t back off. Instead he lunged right into my face, smashing a metal hand into my nose. The cut across my face he caused earlier oozed red, some of it getting into my eyes. It stung, causing me to wince as I tried to rub the liquid out of my eyes.

The Headless Horseman took advantage of my temporary blindness. He shoved me back to the ground again as he took his sword back.

“Leon!!!” Rinoa’s voice called out. A moment later a beam of Light blasted into the Headless Horseman. When I opened my eyes again, he was gone. Stupidly, I didn’t ask if he’d been vaporized or just blown into the distance. I still hoped that he was just another, albeit powerful, Heartless.

“Have you seen my weapon?” I asked, trying to act unfazed. I didn’t want her to notice how rattled I was.

“I’ve got it right here.” She said, brandishing the weapon on her shoulder. “You may have dropped it after I blew you away, sorry about that.” She smiled sheepishly as she walked closer.

I pressed a hand against my forehead. “More my fault, really. I should have kept a better grip on it.” I moved my hand away from my head. Red blood stood out against my black glove. Rinoa noticed right away, her eyes growing wide.

“Leon, are you alright?” She ran to me and pulled my face towards her. “Let me see.”

“I’m- I’m okay” I stuttered, the adrenaline in my system started to ease out of me causing my hyper focus was to wane. “Were you trying to blow me into a tree?” I asked, trying to change the subject to something lighter.

“Let’s say a pile of mud. People will think I have good aim when they look at your clothes.” Rinoa wiped a muddy hand on my leather sleeve, before going back to examining my face again. Eventually she let go and gave a sigh of relief. “We’ll the good news is the cut isn’t too deep. There’d probably be some light scaring for any other healer…” Rinoa flashed a smile before practically singing to say, “But I’m not just any old healer.” She said, gingerly pressing a finger to my nose and even saying ‘boop’ as she did it.

The magic ran up my nose and a moment later I could feel my skin begin to stitch itself back together. In fact, I could feel the rest of my energy coming back to me.

“Feeling better?” Rinoa asked.

“A lot, actually.”

“You sound surprised.” She said. “How could you ever doubt me?”

“No, but I guess I didn’t give you enough credit.” Rinoa continued pawing at my face, rotating it and looking at it from every angle. “Umm, Rinoa. You can let go.”

“Oh, sorry.” Turning red she let go. “Just making sure everything was fixed.”

“How could you ever doubt me?” I mimicked.

“Okay, okay. Sorry.” Rinoa rolled her eyes. She looked around the area before turning back to look at me. “So uhh, do you recognize this place?”

I looked around. It was a mostly empty field with only a lone schoolhouse to give the place any sense that human activity took place here. “I don’t usually go Sleepy Hollow.” I answered. “But even if I did, I doubt I’d come _here_ very often.”

“I’m a little worried that we might be lost…” Rinoa looked around as she crouched low and hugged her knees.

“Don’t worry,” I placed a hand on her shoulder. “So long as we stay on this path, we’ll be fine.”

“What path?”

I kicked a cloud of dust into the air. “The one we’re standing on.” I studied Rinoa’s features. She looked tired. More tired than I’d ever seen her before. “Hey, are you feeling alright?”

“Hmm? Sorry, did you say something?” She looked up at me. She was covered in dust and sweat, and her boots were caked in mud. Probably from searching for me in the forest, but I didn’t ask out loud.

“C’mon. Up,” I commanded, crouching to her level and indicating to my back.

She shot an eyebrow at me. “You’re going to give me a piggyback ride?”

“I’m just taking you inside the schoolhouse. It’s better than leaving you in the sun.”

“Okay…” She breathed. The fact that she wasn’t trying to argue against me, or at least tease me, told me that she was even more exhausted than she let on.

I carried her inside and set her down on the school master’s chair at the front of the classroom. The inside of the schoolhouse was almost as dark as the inside of the forest. The windows had large heavy looking slats that blocked most of the light from coming in. The faded remains of erased math problems and spelling lessons still lingered on the board. In the center of the board I could barely see the remains of a keyhole shaped drawing. Aside from the dusty remains on the board, the whole room seemed to have been recently dusted and swept.

“It doesn’t look like the last person here was in a hurry to leave.” Rinoa said.

“Yeah, guess the Heartless didn’t attack until after the local school master closed up for the day.”

“I suppose that means without any hearts around, the Heartless haven’t had a reason to come looking here.”

I just hummed in response as I leaned against the wall. “Try to get some rest. You’ll need it.”

“Leon? Is this the right thing to do? Shouldn’t we be out looking for more survivors.”

“What’s more important is for you to regain your energy. You can’t help anyone if you exhaust yourself.” I said. “You can’t help anyone if you’re dead.”

“If you say so…” Rinoa slumped against the school master’s desk.

For a few minutes, everything was at peace. At least from what I could tell inside the schoolhouse. This whole rescue operation, from our end, was looking like a wash. The odds that there were any survivors out here was getting increasingly small. Rinoa was probably bothered by that fact the most.

“Hey, Leon…?” Rinoa’s voice was quiet, but it didn’t carry the melancholic tone from earlier. It still sounded worried but also curious. “What’s that thing?” I opened an eye to see the keyhole drawing on the blackboard glowing.

“Is that…?” I stuttered, too stunned to actually say what it was out loud.

“A Keyhole… A Keyhole to the World’s Heart!” Rinoa exclaimed. Practically bouncing out of her chair as she said it.

“But if the Heartless aren’t here trying to get at it right now, does that mean they haven’t found it yet and came here for another reason?” I asked.

“Who cares, Leon!?! We found the Keyhole, and the Heartless don’t seem to know where it is. If we can protect it, we might be able to save this World!”

“Sure, but if even one Heartless finds it that could be the end of Sleepy Hollow. And if one finds the Keyhole, then even more will probably show up trying to get it.”

“What do you think we should do, then?” Rinoa asked.

“You should stay behind and guard the Keyhole. I’ll go get the others and let them know about it.” I didn’t like the idea of leaving her behind for any amount of time, but she could stop any Heartless from finding the Keyhole until I returned with reinforcements.

“Are you sure?” Rinoa looked worried. “Maybe I should go with you, just in case.”

“In case of what? The Headless guy finds me again?”

Rinoa noded wordlessly.

“We don’t have much of a choice at the moment. It’d be great if you could come with me, but you’ve exhausted yourself with the powerful spells you’ve cast. But most importantly, everyone who lives in Sleepy Hollow needs you to protect the Keyhole.” I pulled an ether from my pocket. “Here, use this in case the Heartless come back before I do. I don’t want you to fight them, just cast a barrier around this schoolhouse and keep them away from the Keyhole.”

I began walking out of the schoolhouse. “Leon, wait!” Rinoa called out. “Be careful okay?”

Fortunately, the run back to the others was uneventful. Following the dirt road from the schoolhouse I was able to find my way to town without much trouble. A little while afterwards I was eventually able to find my way to the evacuation zone.

The those who were there, were leading who they could into Gummi Ships to get them off this World before it was too late.

There was a chance, a small unlikely chance but a chance nonetheless, that we could save this world. But Rinoa and I couldn’t do it alone.

“Leon! Where have you been?” Brom Bones called out to me as I ran into view. “I didn’t see you land. We were worried that you might not have made the journey to Sleepy Hollow.”

One of the Sleepy Hollow Boys walked up to get a better look at me. “Brom was more than a little worried. He went by himself to see if might have crashed.”

“Yes, well, when I couldn’t find you I had to turn back around. I came home for a reason after all, I couldn’t spend all my time looking for you while everyone else was in trouble.”

“Sorry for making you worry. I thought I made it clear that I was landing further away to see if any survivors were stuck at the source of the Heartless appearance.” I was out of breath after my long run here, but I was excited to share my news with anyone I could at this point. I sucked in a deep breath before I spoke to Brom again. “I do have good news.”

“Gadzooks, run and hide in single file, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Leon smile!” He does that a lot. The rhyming. I don’t know why he does, but people seem to like it. “Tell us your good news ol’ boy.”

“There might be a chance for us to save this world, Brom.” Now I had Brom’s full attention. His eyes focused on me and prompted me to continue. “I found Sleepy Hollow’s Keyhole inside an old schoolhouse. I have someone guarding it now, and if we can fight off the Heartless, we might be able to save your home.”

Brom called over some of the members from his Sleepy Hollow gang. “Barnaby, wait for some others to get back with the evacuees and get a group together. Leon and I are heading to the schoolhouse.” He turned back to me and gave me a pat on the shoulder. “You sure you’re going to be able make it back over there in your condition?” He asked as he poked at the area between his eyes.

“I should be asking you that,” I responded. “You’re not looking to great yourself.” Now that I had chance to notice it, Brom was covered cuts and mud himself.

He smiled at me. “I guess we’ve both been harassed by the Heartless plenty enough for today, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” I responded. “Now come on. We don’t have time to waste standing around.”

We began running back the way I came.

“Leon, you said you had someone guarding the schoolhouse, right?” Brom Bones asked, “Someone, as in just one? Are you sure they’ll be alright alone?”

“They’ve set up a barrier around it. And if any of the Heartless does somehow get past it, she’ll be more than capable of taking care it.”

“She?” Brom said between breaths. “It wouldn’t happen to be the ‘Sorceress’, would it?”

My stomach twisted as he said the words. Whatever, I was going to get caught soon enough anyway. “You got me. She’s guarding the Keyhole right now.”

“You’re playing a dangerous game, you know.” Brom’s voice lost its usual jovial tone. “The other’s back at Traverse Town won’t be happy to hear you’ve taken their strongest line of defense with you.”

“It was her decision. She wanted to come.”

“I don’t know if everyone back in Traverse Town will accept that justification.”

“If we can stop this world from being lost, they might change their tune.” I stumbled briefly over a loose rock. The sudden loss of balance reminded me of the day’s events. There was something different about The Headless Horseman compared to other Heartless I’ve faced. “Brom, earlier today I was attacked by this weird… thing. It looked like a man, but it radiated darkness and didn’t have a head. You ever hear about something like that?”

Brom was quiet. It wasn’t like him to consider his words. Normally he’d immediately respond. “I- Are you talking about the Headless Horseman? He’s a Bossloper. Something that resides in the woods. You’re saying he attacked you?”

“Yeah,” I said, while struggling to match Brom’s speed. “Any reason why he’d go after me in particular? He seemed to ignore Rinoa.”

“Well, he’s missing his head, right? Most people believe he attacks others to replace the head he’s missing. Maybe Ms. Heartilly’s was too dainty to interest him?”

“If that’s the case, he would have done a terrible job at it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Brom asked.

“Remember the cut on my face? That was him.” I was starting to lag a little behind him. But I knew we were almost there, it kept me running as hard as I could. “If he really wanted my head, he risked cutting it into pieces if I hadn’t avoided his blow.”

“Well, he’s a not exactly someone the people of Sleepy Hollow talk to. So, I guess we’ll never know.”

It was a fair enough answer. If he said he didn’t know, then he didn’t know. Besides we were coming up to the schoolhouse soon. Even though I trusted Rinoa to take care of the place I was still worried. I knew we were there when the bright light coming from the barrier, she casted came into vision.

“We’re here!” I shouted. “Rinoa, keep the barrier going! Don’t let it down for any reason!” We were probably going to be fighting for a while. Brom and I exchanged glances at each other before he ran off to fight a few Heartless that were getting closer to the barrier.

“Leon, I’ll take care of this side of the schoolhouse, you watch the back!” Brom shouted at me. “We need to keep them away from the barrier from all sides, otherwise they might find a way in!”

He was right. I nodded at him and ran to the other side. There was a swarm of Heartless trying to get inside the schoolhouse. Being that the barrier was made from light magic the Heartless that touched were fried instantly. But it wouldn’t last forever if they kept rushing it. Immediately, I dove into the pile of Heartless, swinging my Gunblade through each Heartless as fast as possible.

I lost track of time as I hacked at the Heartless that approached me and the barrier. At first, it seemed like the crowd of Heartless was getting bigger. But as I continued to slice through them the herd began to thin out.

I dropped my Gunblade as the last Heartless was vanquished. My arms felt like lead and I could barely hear anything from the pounding of my heart in my ears. I prayed the reinforcements would get here soon.

A branch snapped from around the corner. “Brom?” I called hoping it was him or, if not him, somebody who could help defend this side with me. And, if they could spare it, maybe a potion would be helpful too. With great effort I turned to view what was approaching me.

The Headless Horseman was charging at me as soon as I turned! A deep laugh once again echoed from the hole between his shoulders. I tried to reach for my weapon, but I was too slow, too exhausted. The Horseman didn’t even bother pulling out his sword. Instead he wrapped his hands around my throat and laughed again. I tried to pull his hands off me, but my muscles felt more like added weight inside my body as what little air I had escaped me. He began to lift me off the ground through sheer strength.

I couldn’t fight him. I gave up even trying. My entire body felt numb. I looked passed the Headless Horseman, choosing to spend my final moments looking at the schoolhouse. At least I could die knowing that inside Rinoa was safe. Multicolored spots formed in my vision as I kept my eyes on the schoolhouse. Then slowly everything began to fade…

A thought occurred to me at that moment. Why was Rinoa calling me Leon? I told her to call me Squall the day before we left for Sleepy Hollow. So surely, I would have said something at some point about it during this trip.

Actually, now that I thought about it, I was certain she’d called me Squall throughout the entirety of this day. Ultimecia had mentioned something of a riddle before I’d passed out. Had she changed something? Like the name Rinoa called me?

I was dropped from The Headless Horseman’s grip. After landing with a thud I started taking deep gulps of air. My sight came back to me as a blur, a few spots remaining in my vision. Looking up, I saw the Headless Horseman holding another me by the throat.

That feeling of watching a dream was gone. But seeing the Headless Horseman strangling the life out of a younger other me was no less surreal. I thought if nothing else, I could get the Horseman to stop if I fought back. I reached for the Gunblade laying discarded on the ground, but my hand passed right through it.

In desperation I tackled the Headless Horseman, but I passed right through him. Was this like before in Traverse Town? Was I now just watching what was happening?

The sky above started dissolving. Like peeling wallpaper, it revealed nothing but blackness underneath. My attention to the sky was pulled away by the bright light from the schoolhouse switching off. When I looked back, the barrier returned.

The barrier surrounding the schoolhouse continued to flicker. Faster and faster the light surrounding the schoolhouse began switching on and off. Rinoa emerged from the schoolhouse, the barrier of light behind her silhouetted her appearance in shadow.

The Horseman dropped my unconscious self as he turned to face her. Large white feathered wings shot out from behind Rinoa’s back. With a single hand raised, she fired a myriad of spells at the Horseman. Each spell was focused down to a dense beam, striking the Horseman alone and passing over my unconscious body.

The Headless Horseman fell to the ground after the first strike but Rinoa continued to pelt him with powerful magic. He was completely helpless. Even I began to feel sorry for him after a while.

Then she stopped. For a moment I thought the Horseman was about to be shown mercy as Rinoa ceased her barrage of magic. I looked back at her, still standing by the schoolhouse.

It wasn’t that she’d stopped. No, she was focusing magic toward her hand. The barrier surrounding the schoolhouse went out as more and more built up in her hand. Now no longer back lit, I could see Rinoa’s face. It twisted in anger as she let loose a Flare spell that engulfed the Headless Horseman.

With the spell cast, she fell to the ground. the strength in her legs apparently failing her. I ran over to her. There wasn’t much I could do but I want to leave her lying on the ground alone. She wasn’t unconscious but didn’t have the strength to move. With the barrier down, Heartless hurried past her. Ignoring her in favor of the Keyhole inside the schoolhouse.

Not long after, the whole world shuddered. Followed by a shockwave of dark energy that launched Rinoa into the forest. I reached out for her as she flew over my head, but mand hand passed through hers.

The rest of the world was dissolving towards me. I was the center point as the entropy dissolved the world. At this point, it looked less like the world was dissolving, but rather an inky black ocean tide coming in.

I expected to begin reliving the moments after I woke up. Not that I’d need the help.

I could remember it well enough. I’d awaken in Cid’s Gummi Ship. High above Sleepy Hollow in orbit. My jacket, folded and placed underneath my head, being used as a makeshift pillow.

Delirious and confused, the first words I’d choke out would be, “Where am I?” as my blurry vision would being to clear. My next immediate thought would be, _Where’s Rinoa?_

Then Cid would speak. “Ah, you’re awake.” He’d be standing above me. “At least try to look like you’re happy to be alive.”

I’d struggle to speak. My mind felt like it was working in slow motion and my tongue felt numb. “Where’s…?”

My tongue felt numb, making it difficult to speak. Not helping was my mind feeling like it was moving in slow motion. Just a single word question is all I’d be able to ask. “Where’s…?”

“Brom Bones?” Cid would presume. “He’s in even worse shape than you are. You’re both lucky to still be alive.”

I was relieved to hear Brom was alive. But he wasn’t who was on my mind right now. “It’s good that he’s alive… But wh-where’s…?”

Cid looked at me sadly. “Sorry Leon. We couldn’t find your Gummi Ship. That’s why you’re flying back with me.”

“Where’s Rinoa?!” I blurted out.

Cid raised an eyebrow at the question. “Rinoa? She should still be back on Traverse Town. She’s probably going to be worrying about you nonstop once we get back.”

I forced myself to stand. “We have to go back!” I tried not to sound worried. I told my self that everything would be alright, maybe we succeeded at protecting the Keyhole and they didn’t need us anymore.

“Go back? What are you talking about? We have to get out of here!”

“Rinoa’s down there. Cid! I brought her with me! We have to go back!”

Terror spread across his face. “Damn it, we don’t have time for this!” He raced towards the controls. Pounding on them, the Gummi Ship bucked and rolled into the opposite direction. “Not good, not good…” He repeated to himself. I stared out the windshield. I could see the problem.

Sora, do you remember when you lost your islands to the darkness? There was a giant ball of darkness hovering overhead just before it was torn apart, right? That’s what we saw as we flew down. Pieces of the World were breaking off and flying towards it.

Cid jerked at the controls, trying to maintain control. The turbulence shook and threw us around like we were a leaf caught in a hurricane. “Leon, I can’t make a landing in these conditions!”

I’d argue with him, trying to find some way we could make it down, until we were out of time.

Instead of all that, I awoke in a dark stone cell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been feeling a little self-conscious about just how much of this story has been glorified flashbacks so far. And while there is going to be one more coming up, it's going to be done a little differently than the others I've shown so far. I'm kinda looking forward to writing it up and I hope you'll be excited to read it too!


	3. From Rinoa to Sora

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I've been gone a little while, huh? 'Bout three weeks since I last posted. I really do want to have an update about every two weeks, so hopefully I'll be able to keep to that goal this time. (Now that I've said it though, I've definitely jinxed it!) The last chapter got a little long for my tastes. It was about 7k words. Which I've set as a personal limit on a chapter's length. (Not that I had to trim it down or anything beyond the usual amount of editing I do, just a happy coincident that it stopped before I felt it was going to get overly long) I want to keep the pacing feeling somewhat brisk, but I'm also writing what is essentially a haunted house story. A type of story that probably requires some time to be spent stopped and focused on the atmosphere. Well, no one’s complained about length or pacing issues so far, so I guess everything’s going okay so far. 
> 
> Anyway I hope you enjoy this next chapter!

Hello, Sora! My name’s Rinoa! Squall, you know him better as Leon, asked me to write a bit about my time inside Ultimecia’s Bastion. He’s already told you a bit about me, right? I’m sorry we haven’t had a chance to get properly acquainted yet. Hopefully next time you’re in Radiant Garden we’ll get a chance to meet for real!

But enough about that. Squall wants me to tell you about what happened inside of Ultimecia’s Bastion while he was unconscious. I’ve been putting off telling you about it for long enough, so I’ll begin where he last left me, Yuffie, and Cid.

I didn’t want to leave Ulimecia’s bastion in the first place, but we didn’t have the supplies to stay overnight. Cid made the decision to for us to head back, saying that it was better to come back and look for him, than to risk us going missing as well.

Those two days of preparation were probably the worst two days of my life. So, when he ran off without us, I was the first to chase after him. I tried to keep up with him.

But the things he said…

How couldn’t he believe me when I told him it was me? I remember wondering. And what did he mean by _‘another Rinoa’_?

I couldn’t help it, the emotion got to me. Two days without knowing if he was safe or not and when I finally do find him, he treats me like a monster! I fell to my knees right behind him.

Yuffie and Cid looked back at me as they ran pass, and instead of continuing after Squall, they slowed to a stop.

“Rinoa! Are you okay?!” Yuffie asked. I think she thought I hurt myself, at first. I tried to answer her, but it took me a couple of tries before the words stopped getting caught in my throat

“I’m- I’m sorry… He’s getting away now because of me.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it.” Yuffie interrupted. “Maybe he got away for right now. But we’re not leaving without him this time.”

“But he could be anywhere and even if we do find him, will he be alright?” Cid placed a gentle hand on my shoulder.

“Well, we know, physically, he’s alright,” He said, stopping momentarily to scratch his head. “Even if he’s acting a bit odd after all these days.”

Yuffie offered me a hand and pulled me back to my feet. “Yeah! And besides, no matter how far or fast he may try to run. With a great ninja like me around to track him down, it’s only a matter of time before we run into him again.”

“You think so?” I sniffled.

“Yeah, you can count on me!” Yuffie said, pumping her hand against her chest. “There’s a lot of little rooms in this hallway, but Leon was talking about getting back to you. Or at least whatever he thinks is the real you. So, we should probably start moving towards the end of the hall to that room you said he disappeared in.”

“R-right, but we’d better hurry after him then. Before he gets there and starts looking for me elsewhere.” The three of us began running again. Hoping we’d catch up to him soon.

Of course, you already know that he’d been lured into a different room than the one we were heading for. So, when we got to the end of the hallway, we were disappointed to find that he wasn’t anywhere to be found.

I was terrified to go inside the room at the end of the hall. Hell, I was scared to even look inside. If I walked into that room, would I disappear too? Would looking inside make me see things that weren’t there too?

I think what scared me most was the possibility that I might see Squall in there, but the others wouldn’t. That I’d be lured inside and separated from the others. So, I felt a mix of relief and disappointment when we opened the door and found it to be empty like all the rest.

“He’s not here…” Yuffie said disappointedly. She turned back to look at me. “Was there anyplace else that caught your guy’s attention? Maybe some other room that interested either of you?”

I shook my head. “No, we’d walked through the hall, checked every room, then got here. It was only when he opened this door that he started freaking out. Every other room he reacted with the same casual indifference he always has.”

“And what about you?” Cid asked. “Did you react differently to any of the rooms? Maybe he’s gone back to one that he thought you took an interest in?”

“I don’t think so, I reacted about the same to all of-” I was interrupted by a voice from down the hall screaming something.

“You **Witch!** ” it screamed.

I recognized the voice. “Squall!” I shouted. Without a second thought I ran back down the hall.

“Rinoa, wait up!” Yuffie yelled after me. But I was already gone. It was Squall’s voice! I’d recognize it anywhere. I could hear Yuffie and Cid running behind me, trying to catch up, which was all the permission I need to keep going full sprint.

I ran towards the direction Squall’s voice came from. My heart hammered in my ears as I chased back down the hall. Was he hurt? How did he get behind us? And why, of all things, did he yell _that_?

I skidded to a stop when I finally found him. He was lying in the middle of the hall; unconscious. A woman I’d never seen before was crouched over him whispering something to him.

“Squall!” I shouted as I ran over to him, pushing the stranger out of the way. He was gray and colorless all over, aside from a deep red gash stretching diagonally from one shoulder blade to just above his hip. I gripped the shoulder furthest from his wound and shook him. An unsuccessful attempt to stir some sort of a reaction from him.

Things were worse than I thought. It wasn’t that the color was drained from him. His whole body was made of stone, aside from the center of his back where the grey stone was slowly advancing towards the still bleeding red. I looked up at the woman for help.

Aside from the red robe she wore, she was practically naked. Her face was painted with jagged purple designs that framed and followed the edge of her hairline, eventually curling away and pointing towards her lips. It was only then, that I noticed she was smiling.

“He’s petrifying!” I yelled at her. I’d never seen a petrification spell with my own eyes before. But the time I spent studying under Merlin back at Traverse Town had made me familiar with all sorts of magical ailments. “We’ve got to do something, don’t just sit there smiling!”

“If you ask me,” she said with venomous delight, “You should just let him turn to stone. He can’t bleed to death if he’s a rock.”

“That’s stupid! We could just use cure on him!”

The woman narrowed her eyes. “Are you always going to be there to save him? He’s your Knight, isn’t he? Then it’s his job to protect you.”

“What are you talking about? How do you know that?” Suddenly I realized who she had to be. “Are- are you Ultimecia? You’re alive?!”

Ultimecia rolled her eyes. “I don’t know if it is presumptuous or optimistic to hope I was dead. But yes, here I am, alive and well. And you haven’t answered my question yet. Why should you cure him, when he’d be just fine as a rock?”

I couldn’t believe the question. Did there have to be an imperical reason to her? “He’s protected me before, and besides, there’s more to our relationship than just protecting one another.”

Ultimecia seemed disappointed by my answer. “That’s what most Sorceresses think when it comes to their Knights, but I know better than that. They’re tools to be used. When they’re near you, you can feel your power grow stronger. They amplify your power. But as a result, you have to protect them more than they protect you. A Sorceress is most powerful when near her Knight and at her Bastion. But what if you were to make those one and the same?” She looked at me with a curious intensity.

“What do you mean one and the same? How could your Knight also be your Bastion?”

“Look at the boy again, and tell me what this place is made from?”

I looked at Squall, still turning to stone. Then I looked at the stone walls and the stone floor. My eyes grew wide with realization.

Ultimecia smiled. “That’s right. Although my Knight wasn’t the first stone laid when my Bastion was built. He wasn’t the last either.”

Squall sunk into the floor of the Bastion like it was made of quicksand. I reached for him and tried to pull him back out, but the force was too strong! I screamed his name, I’m not really sure why. Maybe I hoped it would help. Or at the very least, maybe he’d hear me and know I was nearby.

Ultimecia didn’t seem to care. She continued talking as if nothing ever happened. “In fact, I doubt your Knight will be the last stone used to build my Bastion. Perhaps the next Knight you find will be more adequate. Or you’ll do the smart thing and build a Bastion out of him too.”

“Rinoa!” Yuffie yelled before I could respond to Ultimecia. She and Cid appeared from behind Ultimecia.

“Ahh, more stones to reinforce my Bastion with.” Ultimecia said as she turned to look at the two. She tilted her head in curiosity when she laid eyes upon Cid. “It’s been awhile, hasn’t it Cid?”

“Not long enough, in my opinion.” Despite his defiant language, Cid looked more like a deer caught in headlights as he grimaced at Ultimecia. He looked even more panicked as he looked back over to me. “Rinoa! Let go of Leon!” Cid yelled. I was still gripped tightly around Squalls stone hand. I wasn’t succeeding at stopping him from sinking into the stone floor, maybe slowing it slightly at best, but as a result I was being pulling me down as well.

Let go of him? How could Cid suggest something like that? I’d rather die than lose Squall again. I wonder if that’s how a lot of other Sorceresses felt about their Knights. But I guess he had a point, as I was being pulled under with him.

Yuffie threw a shuriken at Ultimecia. The Sorceress laughed at the useless attempt to hurt her as she batted away the ninja weapon with the back of her hand. In flash she was upon Yuffie and gripped her by the forehead. “Let me see what you are most ashamed of…” She said before laughing. A moment later, they were both gone. Vanished into thin air. Only her laugh remained. It hung in the air as it taunted Cid and I.

“Yuffie!” I screamed. I didn’t have time to worry about her, as the floor’s pull on Squall suddenly got stronger. “Cid, help me! It’s trying to take him away!” I pressed my feet against the floor, trying to find some sort of foothold I could use as leverage.

Cid ran up to me and wrapped arms around my waist. He pulled with all his might, but it was still no use. We were still sinking into the floor.

“Rinoa, you have to let go! It’s going to drag us both under!”

“No! Wherever we go, we go together!” I shouted back at him. I don’t know why those words popped into my head. I guess I just had to say something. As moments later, we were dragged down with the statue of Squall.

I awoke on a different floor in Ultimecia’s Bastion. It wasn’t too dissimilar to the previous floor.

Another stone hallway.

But unlike the previous floor, the red carpeting was gone and the stones that made up the hall grew distorted and rounder as I looked further down. The gray bricks that made the floor slowly morphed into a cobblestone path the further the hall went.

I found Cid behind me, slumped against the stone wall. He was unconscious, but his breathing was untroubled. Altogether he looked unhurt.

I breathed a sigh of relief. At least he was okay, but Squall and Yuffie were nowhere to be seen.

“Cid, Cid, wake up,” I said as I gently shook him. “C’mon Cid, up and at ‘em”

He groaned uncomfortably, either from my incessant shaking or from the pain slouching against the wall for who knows how long can cause. “Tell me the past couple of days have just been a dream.” His voice growled.

“Sorry, can’t say they have.” I said sadly. I stood up and offered him a hand. “Come on Cid. We need to find Squall and Yuffie.”

Cid slapped a hand over his tired eyes and rubbed the sleep out of them. “Our quartet has been downsized to a duet. Are you sure I’m not still asleep in a nightmare?”

I shook my hand in front of his face. “Cid come on, we’ve got to get going and my arm’s getting tired.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Sorry.” Cid grabbed my hand and pulled with enough force that I was nearly the one being pulled to the floor.

We walked the length of the hallway together. Unlike the previous hallway, this one was barren of any doors. There wasn’t much to look at as we continued forward. No windows, no pictures, no decoration of any kind. The only thing that changed as we continued walking was the stone bricks.

“So,” I spoke up absentmindedly. I didn’t really know what to talk about, but I was getting sick of just listening to the sound of our footsteps. “You know Ultimecia?” I asked. “She said something about having seen you before.”

“Ahh,” Cid breathed. He sounded a little surprised, but not much. It was closer to a breath of realization. Realization that this conversation was going to happen eventually. “Well, it’s not like we’re friends or anything.”

“Were you her Knight and you never told us?” I joked.

“Hah! You wish! Looking for something to gossip about with Yuffie and Aerith?”

I tried to respond innocently. “What? I don’t gossip.” But I don’t think Cid bought it.

Cid chuckled to himself. “I don’t know what you would call us. Acquaintances, I guess. Sorceresses are usually separate from the rest of the Radiant Garden’s scientists and soldiers. But sometimes they agree to help with stuff.” Cid wiggled his fingers as if he was about to cast a spell. “Y’know, in case there’s a need for big explosions or there’s not enough doctors during a medical emergency.”

I supposed that Cid and Ultimecia’s paths must have just crossed every now and then. I would’ve asked Cid to confirm my theory, but I should have been looking at my feet. I cried out in pain as I rolled my ankle on an awkwardly shaped cobblestone.

There was something different about the cobblestones now. They were forming shapes. At first I thought it was just my eyes playing tricks. Seeing things that weren’t there. One cobblestone in particular looked like a Shadow Heartless, then another that also looked like a Shadow Heartless.

I turned to Cid. “Hey, don’t these cobblestones look kinda like…”

“Yeah, I see ‘em.” Cid interrupted. The carefree look on his face was gone now. “Looks just like a type of Heartless.”

I cast a quick cure spell on my ankle, and we began moving in silence.

I wanted to find something to say to try to keep the mood light. But the words got caught in my throat as we passed a rock that looked more like a person than a Heartless. Our pace slowed and I could have sworn there was a chill in the air as we kept going.

The further we moved the more three dimensional the cobblestones became. Twisted faces were contorted in horror. They became less deformed the further we moved along.

 _Were these once regular people? What kind of petrification is this?_ I wondered.

I wanted to believe all these people were just statues. The alternative was just horrible. All of these people must’ve been trapped here for at least ten years, trying to find shelter from when the Heartless attacked. Maybe more if they arrived before the Heartless attack for some reason.

I couldn’t pretend that they were just statues for long, however. Doors started to litter the place just like on the previous floor. Some of the petrified remains of people even seemed to be fused to the door. At the very end of the hall was Yuffie.

Or rather a petrified statue of her. Just like the others, she was also fused to the door.

I’m not super familiar with un-petrifying people. Merlin walked me through the steps of the process just in case I ever need to use it. But I’ve never actually done it before. Even still, trying to un-petrify Yuffie was a greater struggle than I was expecting. It was doubly difficult for me since I’d never had to undo the effects of another Sorceress’s spell before.

It was a slow process, but we eventually managed to unpeel Yuffie from the door. She was a wreck. She responded quiet and unintelligibly when Cid and I asked if she was okay. There was a kind of thousand yard stare coming from her before tears started well up in her eyes.

Yuffie sat against a door, hugging her legs to her chest. With small quiet steps, I approached her. Taking care not to accidentally upset her any more than she already was.

“Yuffie are you okay?” I asked slowly, as if I’d scare her if I spoke to quickly.

She said something in between sobs. She repeated it over and over again until I could finally understand what she was saying. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“Yuffie, what did Ultimecia do?” I asked, but despite the concern in my voice, she wouldn’t look at me.

“In-Inside…” Yuffie hiccupped as she pointed towards the door behind her.

“Inside this room?” I moved to open the door to see what had bothered her so deeply, but she stopped me.

“Don’t!” She yelled, snatching my hand away from the door handle as she did so. “You’ll hate me…”

“I promise I won’t,” I whispered to her. Yuffie wouldn’t budge. Her knuckles had turned white as she squeezed my wrist causing me to wince. I jerked my arm away from her once I found the pain to become too uncomfortable. “Yuffie, what’s in there? What don’t you want me to see?”

Yuffie didn’t respond. Only burying her head in her knees to look away from me and occasionally her whole body would shudder in silent sobs.

Cid sat on the floor next to Yuffie and wrapped one of his arms around her. “It has something to do with what Ultimecia said, huh?”

Yuffie nodded.

“She said somethin’ bout what you were ashamed of when she took you away, right?”

Yuffie nodded again. “She also said Leon was somewhere in that room.”

“What do you think?” Cid asked as he turned to me. “Could be a trap or something. Ultimecia’s the kind of person who’d pull the wings off a butterfly if she has the chance. This could be red hearing just to lure us deeper inside.”

I looked at the door, I already knew what I was going to do. But I thought I should at least pretend to consider my options for their sake. “I’m going in. If there’s a chance Squall’s in there I have to take it. We’ve been separated for too long; I’m not letting Ultimecia or anyone else stand in my way now.” I walked towards the door again, but I felt something pull against the duster part of my sleeveless jacket.

Yuffie held on to it as she said, “Please Rinoa. Leon wasn’t the only one who thought you were gone forever.”

“This time will be different Yuffie, I promise.” I really meant it too. I might not have been as classically trained as Ultimecia, but I was ready to tear this whole Bastion apart if need be. It certainly felt like I had that power on some days. I mentally prepared myself for today to be that day.

Yuffie’s grip weakened on my clothes until it fell from her fingers. “Rinoa if you really are going in. I’m- I’m sorry about what you might see.”

I pulled open the door and stepped inside. I looked back at Cid, “Take care of Yuffie until I get back, Okay?”

Cid didn’t have a chance to respond as the door slammed shut on its own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part of the reason this took so long to come out was because I wrote and rewrote the beginning with Rinoa meeting Ultimecia like four times. Each one being a different length. But I decided on this one because it got to Rinoa finding Squall the fastest and moved the plot along the best as well. There were some bits I liked that got edited out because of which, but hopefully if they’re meant to be, they’ll find a place in a later chapter.
> 
> I’ve also changed the estimated chapter count from 4 to 5 now. Nothing huge has been changed to my outline, I just felt that this was a good spot for a cliff hanger, and I could leave it at that for now, without making anyone reading this wait another week or two.
> 
> Anyway, once again I’ll ask for you to give me your thoughts and feedback in the comments.


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